Product. Price. Place. Promotion. Participation.

Seems about time to add a 5th "P" to the marketing mix, doesn't it?  It's an idea I blogged about that fits in perfectly with my research into reinventing the marketing organization (and was reminded about from a post on the Fallon Planning Blog).

Marketers have professed customer-centricity for years.  However, marketing changes the way it organizes (away from product- or channel-based P&Ls), the idea of customer-centricity remains a concept, not a reality.

The catalyst driving the need for reinvention at present?  Social computing.  Technology has and will continue to change the nature of the game and companies need to shift or perish.

There's a nice white paper from BrandChannel as well, but it fails to emphasize the honesty/transparency aspects required to succeed.  Without reinvention, we're bound to see more egg on corporate faces, as unbelievable as that may seem.  The alternative?  Sit on the sideline while your competitors cement their relationships with your industry's influentials.

The time for reinvention is NOW.

Comments

[Lewis Green]

Peter,

Right on! Marketing Departments have talked about customer-centrism, but except for research, they have done little to enact the theory.

In fact, at companies such as Starbucks, Marketing often sits on the bench, while the Retail Department launches, manages and executes the ideas and work needed to focus on customers. And internally, the communications departments at businesses often drive participation and customer focus.

Marketing needs to stop worrying about being invited to the table and do something that earns it the right to sit there.